Public teacher’s wage increase unlikely to happen, says budget chief

The government will need to have an additional cost of P500 billion to fulfill the plan of doubling the salaries of public school teachers, an amount that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is not ready to dole out.

At the “Kapihan sa Manila Bay” on Wednesday, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno cited the total number of teachers in the Philippines and the projects that are more prioritized by the administration as factors in the impossibility of its materialization.
“Unfortunately, that requires a huge amount because there are 600,000 teachers, and I would think that salaries alone of teachers would be about half-a-trillion pesos. Doubling the salaries of teachers would need half-a-trillion pesos,” Diokno said.

“I think that is not our priority at this time. Our priorities are Build, Build, Build and social protection, taking care of the poor,” Diokno added.

Diokno said that such move should be studied carefully, stressing that Filipino taxpayers would not want a budget that is purely for salaries.

However, he also said that the best time to consider salary adjustment for public teachers and other government workers should be after the completion of the fourth tranche of the salary standardization.

(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 01/ 10 / 18)